Members

Former Texas State Representative (District 73), former Chairman - Edwards Aquifer Authority Brd, former Mayor of New Braunfels and former member of the TWDB Region L Regional Water Planning Group. Currently President of Miller & Miller Insurance, owner - Highlife Ranch, Board Member - First Commercial Bank (Seguin).

Mr. Johnston is a Texas Licensed Professional Engineer and Nationally Certified Floodplain Manager. He has been recognized as the 1999 City of Victoria Public Works Employee of the Year by the APWA Southeast Texas Branch and the 2000-2001 Local Floodplain Manager of the Year by the Texas Floodplain Managers Association.

Mr. Johnston was born and raised in Victoria, Texas. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University, College Station in August 1983 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering. In September 2019, John was appointed as Victoria County Engineer, prior to this engagement, John served in various roles with the City of Victoria since 1992 including Director of Engineering, Director of Public Works, Development Engineer and Floodplain Administrator. He worked in the Dallas/Fort Worth area from 1983 to 1989 as a graduate design engineer for private engineering companies. From 1989 to 1992, Mr. Johnston served the City of North Richland Hills, Texas as the Assistant Director of Public Works and Floodplain Administrator.

Mr. Johnston has been married to his wife Kelly since 1981. They share two sons and three granddaughters. He is a member of Northside Baptist Church in Victoria where he serves on various church committees and is an ordained deacon. He currently serves as the Vice-President of the Texas Floodplain Managers Association. John holds a General Class Amateur Radio License, is an avid golfer, enjoys travel and outdoor activities with his family.

Lon A. Shell has served as Hays County Commissioner for Precinct Three since 2017, serving much of western San Marcos and the Wimberley Valley. Prior to his service as Commissioner, Lon worked as the County's Chief of Staff for seven years. As County Commissioner, Lon spends much of his time working on the challenges of managing extreme growth while maintaining Hays County's great quality of life and cherished natural resources.

Lon is President of the San Marcos Hays County EMS board of directors and serves on the boards of the Greater San Marcos Partnership and the Capital Area Regional Transportation Planning Organization (CARTPO). Lon also serves as the Chairman of the Hays County Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission and the Combined Emergency Communications Center Executive Board.

Lon is married to Jennifer, his wife of 20 years, and together they have one twelve-year-old daughter, Katheleen. Lon is a graduate of San Marcos High School and Texas A&M University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. After working in Houston and Dallas, Lon returned to his native Hays County to raise his family, grow a small business, and be near his family's farm and their Santa Gertrudis cattle.

Annalisa Peace holds an MS in Urban Administration from Trinity University and has over thirty years' experience working with government and non-profit organizations. Since 2004, Ms. Peace has been the Executive Director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, which unites 52 organizations throughout a 21 county region in Central and South Texas behind a plan to protect the Edwards and Trinity aquifers, their contributing watersheds, and the Texas Hill Country.

She has been instrumental in organizing citizens' campaigns and has served on many governmental advisory boards, including as co-chair of the Kelly Air Force Base Restoration Advisory Board, the City of San Antonio Open Space Advisory Board, the City Task Force that drafted San Antonio's water quality rules, the Southern Edwards Plateau Habitat Conservation Plan, the Edwards Aquifer Recovery Implementation Program, City of San Antonio's Water and Natural Resources Stakeholder Group for the Climate Action Plan, the City of New Braunfels Technical Committee for Stormwater Planning, and the City of New Braunfels Master Plan Committee for Water and Natural Resources.

She currently serves on the Environmental Advisory Committee of the San Antonio River Authority, the Steering Committee of the Texas Hill Country Conservation Network, UTSA Urban Planning Advisory Committee, Our Lady of the Lake University Political Science Advisory Council, the Advisory Board of the Comal County Conservation Alliance, and participates in many other efforts to maintain the environmental integrity of our region.

Joe Pantalion is an Assistant City Manager (ACM) for the City of San Marcos. He has 32 years of experience in private and public sector management and engineering, primarily in the area of storm water management. As ACM for San Marcos and Richardson, he is/was responsible for oversight of the City's storm water programs and flood bond program implementation. From 1997 to 2019, he served in various positions in the City of Austin's Watershed Protection Department, including Director when the department was awarded the 2017 National Award for Best Large Municipal Storm Water Program by the Water Environment Federation. He managed several major initiatives including the creation of Austin's first Watershed Protection Master Plan, the negotiation of its first federal storm water discharge permit and significant amendments to watershed protection ordinances. He worked 10 years in the private sector assisting cities and counties to develop, fund and implement storm water management programs. He has previously served in a number of appointed positions including as a member of the Austin Environmental Commission and president of the Waller Creek Local Government Corporation. He is a licensed professional engineer, an 8th generation Texan and proud alumni of the UT-Austin School of Engineering.

Kimberly Meitzen, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Geography Department at Texas State University. Kimberly teaches undergraduate courses on river processes, river basin management, environmental management, and biogeography, and graduate courses on water resources and river and society related issues. Her research focuses on hydraulic flood modeling, environmental flows, river channel and floodplain habitat suitability modeling, and riparian ecosystems. Kimberly is currently the TXST representative for the Stakeholder Committee of the Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Plan, co-chair of the Upper San Marcos Watershed Protection Plan, and serves on the board of the San Marcos River Foundation. Kimberly grew up in El Paso Texas, completed her B.S. at UT Austin, and received her M.S. and Ph.D. from University of South Carolina, Columbia in 2011. After receiving her doctorate, she was a Post-doc Fellow with Duke University and The Nature Conservancy of North Carolina. Kimberly has lived in San Marcos since 2013, her home is 70% solar-powered and captures nearly 3,500 gallons of rainwater. Kimberly is actively involved with the San Marcos community. She serves as a co-chair of the Mermaid Society SMTX River Guardianship Symposium planning team, and is a member of the non-profit groups the San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance and the Eyes of the San Marcos River, and she volunteers with many of the local river clean-up events.

I am a Sr. Water Resources Engineer for GBRA. Prior to joining GBRA, I worked as a water resources engineer and planner in the private sector for 21 years. Much of my experience includes studying, analyzing, and understanding the hydrology, geography, and characteristics of the Guadalupe River Basin. I look forward to serving on the Flood Planning Group and assisting however I can.

Mr. Gian Villarreal is a professional civil engineer with over 18 years of experience with watershed management. He has extensive experience as an engineer and project manager for flood control projects and watershed management. This includes flood control, surface water quality and protection, stream stabilization, and stream restoration. Mr. Villarreal has focused his career on the interdependence of these aspects of watershed management. He is the co-chair for the Stormwater / Watershed Management Committee for the Water Environment Association of Texas (WEAT) and the co-chair for the Stream Restoration Committee of the Texas Floodplain Managers Association (TFMA).

Mr. Villarreal has extensive experience with the hydrologic and hydraulic modeling of rivers and streams in Texas, strategic watershed management planning, including drainage master plans, planning and design of structural storm water best management practices (BMPs), surface water quality and protection efforts, and stream protection and restoration projects. In addition, he has extensive experience performing field studies of streams throughout central Texas, including on the Guadalupe and Blanco Rivers in this Region. Mr. Villarreal lives in the Region, just a few blocks from the Guadalupe River and is the owner of a small business that is located within the City of New Braunfels, Seagull PME, that provides engineering consulting services for water resources projects.